It Is Said Cesarean Sections Are So Named Because Julius Caesar Was Born That Way. Here's What We Found
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According to legend, somewhere in the lands of the Roman Republic, some time around 100 B.C.E., a man named Gaius Julius Caesar (perhaps you've heard of him) was brought into the world by being cut out of his mother's abdomen.
Over the next two millennia, the story goes, that surgical method for birthing a child would come to bear the Roman emperor's name: the cesarean section, spelled caesarean in the U.K., and oftentimes shortened to just C-section.
If only the legend were demonstrably true...
The reality of the situation, as with many other claims that come from old stories, is that we don't really know where the name "cesarean section" comes from. But we do have some theories, and in fact, the most prominent one could point to the C-section as the origin of the name "Caesar," instead of the other way around.
The earliest source for the claim that Julius Caesar was born by C-section comes from a misinterpretation of a short passage in the Roman historian Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia (Natural History), written in the first century A.D. z
...Auspicatius enecta parente gignuntur, sicut Scipio Africanus prior natus, primusque Caesarum a caseo matris utero dictus, qua de causa et Caesones appellati.
Those children, whose birth has cost the mother her life, are evidently born under more favourable auspices; for such was the case with the first Scipio Africanus; the first, too, of the Caesars was so named, from his having been removed by an incision in his mother's womb. For a similar reason, too, the Caesones were called by that name.
In this context, "the first of the Caesars" could be read as either "the first of the lineage of Caesars" or "the first of the lineage of emperors named Caesar." Only the second interpretation would confirm Julius Caesar as being born by C-section, but it would not explain his father or relatives also having the name "Caesar."
In fact, there's even stronger evidence to suggest that Caesar was not born by C-section: His mother reportedly survived his birth. Historians have concluded that delivering a baby via C-section in ancient times was a guaranteed death sentence for the mother, and the procedure was therefore performed only when the pregnant woman was dead or dying.
So most historians conclude that Pliny must be referring to one of Julius Caesar's earliest ancestors. But in doing so, he actually implies that the opposite is true — that the name Caesar comes from "caedere," a Latin verb meaning "to cut."
The decisive phrase in question is "a caseo matris utero dictus," (translation: so named because he was cut from his mother's womb), with "caseo" also coming from "caedere." This is further backed up by Pliny's mention of the term "Caesones," an adjective that could be applied to anyone born via C-section.
Various other sources have written that the name Caesar comes from something else, so nobody really knows for sure if this theory of origin is true. But if Caesar does come from "caedere," there's another theory that would rely on the name: A Roman law predating Caesar required a C-section to be performed if the mother was dead. But that law, the Lex Regia, was renamed to the Lex Caesaria during the Roman Empire.
By the 1600s, the full term "cesarean section" was in use, with many treatises falsely claiming that Julius Caesar was born that way. Perhaps there's a bit of mythologizing at play here — an era-defining figure being born in a strange manner could serve to elevate Caesar's already legendary status even higher.
Regardless: one of the most powerful abilities humans have is noticing patterns. The claim that "Caesar" and "cesarean section" are related is an easy one to make. It's just a very hard one to support with evidence.
And as for the name of the C-section? It almost certainly comes from Latin, and likely, either directly or indirectly, comes from the word "caedere," meaning "to cut." Whether or not Julius Caesar had anything to do with it remains up for debate.
Sources:
"Are Cesarean Sections Named After Julius Caesar?" Discover Magazine, https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/are-cesarean-sections-named-after-julius-caesar. Accessed 14 May 2024.
Caedere: Latin Conjugation Tables, Cactus2000. https://latin.cactus2000.de/showverb.en.php?verb=caedere. Accessed 14 May 2024.
Cesarean Section - A Brief History: Part 1. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part1.html#:~:text=Roman%20law%20under%20Caesar%20decreed,infants%20born%20by%20postmortem%20operations. Accessed 14 May 2024.
"History of the Cesarean Section." Healthline, 29 June 2023, https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/history-cesarean-section.
Julius Caesar | Biography, Conquests, Facts, & Death | Britannica. 23 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler.
Pliny, the Elder, et al. Pliny's Natural History. In Thirty-Seven Books. [London] Printed for the Club by G. Barclay, 1847. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/plinysnaturalhis00plinrich.
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, Liber Vii, Chapter 18. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0138:book=7:chapter=18&highlight=. Accessed 14 May 2024.
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK VII. 1 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS., CHAP. 7. (9.)—OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN CUT OUT OF THE WOMB. 1 We Here Enter upon the Third Division of Pliny's Natural History, Which Treats of Zoology, from the 7th to the 11th Inclusive. Cuvier Has Illustrated This Part by Many Valuable Notes, Which Originally Appeared in Lemaire's Bibliotheque Classique, 1827, and Were Afterwards Incorporated, with Some Additions, by Ajasson, in His Translation of Pliny, Published in 1829; Ajasson Is the Editor of This Portion of Pliny's Natural History, in Lemaire's Edition.—B.
. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D7. Accessed 14 May 2024.
The Grammarphobia Blog: How the C-Section Got Its Name. 7 Dec. 2016, https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2016/12/cesarean-caesarean.html.
u/c8ertot. "Origin of the Word Caesarean?" R/Etymology, https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/w7c89k/origin_of_the_word_caesarean/.
van Dongen, Pieter W. J. "Caesarean Section – Etymology and Early History." South African Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol. 15, no. 2, Aug. 2009, pp. 62–66, http://www.sajog.org.za/index.php/SAJOG/article/viewFile/158/117.
"Why Is It Called a Cesarean Section?" Mental Floss, 13 June 2022, https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/why-is-it-called-a-cesarean-section.
"Why Is It Called A 'Cesarean Section' Anyway?" HuffPost, 5 Apr. 2018, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-is-it-called-a-cesarean-section-anyway_n_5ac24885e4b055e50acf55bc.
